A Critical Multimodal Metaphor Analysis Of Political Cartoons On America’s Response To COVID-19 Epidemic

The term “multimodal metaphor” put forward by Charles Forceville(2004)extends the study of metaphor to cartoons,movies,gestures,sounds,etc.In the same year,Jonathan Charteris-Black proposes the method of “Critical Metaphor Analysis(CMA)” which focuses on studying metaphor from a social perspective.Given that few studies have combined the multimodal metaphor and CMA to explore the use of multimodal metaphors in political cartoons and the ideology behind them,the thesis attempts to conduct a Critical Multimodal Metaphor Analysis(CMMA)of political cartoons by answering the following three research questions:(1)What are the metaphors and metaphor scenarios used in PCC and PCA?(2)In the process of metaphor mapping,how are metaphor scenarios constructed,and what key elements of these metaphor scenarios are mapped onto the target domains?(3)What attitudinal and evaluative information are conveyed by these metaphor scenarios and key elements? What are the factors influencing the choices of metaphors and metaphor scenarios in PCC and PCA?The thesis selects 30 political cartoons on America’s response to COVID-19 epidemic respectively from China’s website http://cartoon.chinadaily.com.cn and America’s website http://politicalcartoons.com/.On the grounds of CMA and the concept of “metaphoric scenario(Musolff,2006)”,the thesis compares and analyzes the selected political cartoons of China on America’s response to COVID-19 epidemic(PCC)and political cartoons of America on America’s response to COVID-19 epidemic(PCA)through three steps of metaphor identification,metaphor interpretation,and metaphor explanation.The research results are obtained as follows:1.The cartoons of both sets of data use six types of metaphors: JOURNEY,WAR/CONFLICT,and SPORTS metaphors are used in both data;LIFE,MACHINE,and STAGE metaphors only appear in PCC,and DISASTER,GRAVE,and ANIMAL metaphors only exist in PCA.Among these metaphors,the Chinese cartoons depict “OBSTACLE”scenarios while American comics depict MOVING FORWARD and ACCIDENT scenarios in JOURNEY metaphor(the most frequent used).In the WAR/CONFLICT metaphor,both sets of cartoons depict FIGHTING/KILLING scenarios,while the Chinese cartoons also depict the“DEFENDING and “RESULTS” scenarios in WAR/CONFLICT metaphor(the second frequently used).2.In the process of multimodal metaphor mapping,the cartoons integrate a series of metaphor chains to form metaphorical narrative scenes based on the integration of pictorial information of pictures,spatial and colors,together with textual information,highlighting certain elements in metaphor scenario to foreground the certain features of the target domains.Among the most frequently occurring metaphors,the elements of “obstacles,losses,and injuries” in ACCIDENT scenario in JOURNEY metaphor are mapped onto the losses in the United States caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.The elements of “fierce fighting,the postures and actions of the strong and the weak side” in FIGHTING/KILLING scenario in WAR/CONFLICT metaphor are projected to convey the terribleness of coronavirus and the US government’s powerlessness in the face of the raging COVID-19 epidemic.3.The cartoons of PCC focus on criticizing the US government’s ineffective response to COVID-19 and its irresponsible behavior of passing the buck to China.In addition to criticizing the Trump administration’s ineffective response,the cartoons of PCA also show concern and worry for the country’s economy,people’s security,and the future of the United States under COVID-19 epidemic.The choices of metaphors and metaphor scenarios in the two data can be explained by individual and social factors: the use of JOURNEY,MACHINE,DISASTER,and ANIMAL metaphors stems from the personal cognitive and emotional factors of human experience,and the use of STAGE metaphor is based on the author’s pragmatic purpose in individual resources.In social resources,the use of WAR/CONFLICT metaphor,SPORTS metaphor,LIFE metaphor,and GRAVE metaphor is based on the influence of ideological,cultural,and historical factors.